The Enemy
by BrOkEnToYbOx
Summary: It infects only those over the age of 18, either killing them or turning them into rotting cannibals. Only teens survive now, struggling to survive on the streets of Japan, using anything and everything as a weapon. But nowhere's safe - especially after Kaoru does something reckless that will join every kid in the country together as one. An army. And their enemy? The Dead.
1. So Cold

_Crowded streets are cleared away_  
_One by One_  
_Hollow heroes separate_  
_As they run_

_You're so cold_  
_Keep your hand in mine_  
_Wise men wonder while strong men die_

_Show me how it ends it's alright_  
_Show me how defenceless you really are_  
_satisfy an empty inside_  
_Well, that's alright, let's give this another try_

– _So Cold, Breaking Benjamin_

* * *

_It was dark. Dark, dark, dark. But that was good. Darkness was good. He didn't like the light. The light hurt. It burnt his skin. It blinded him. Yes. He much preferred the dark. The shadows couldn't hurt him. They were his friends. Unlike those kids. He could hear them now. Talking. Making a racket. They locked him in here. Trapped him like a monster. But he wasn't a monster. He wasn't. Well, at least he though he wasn't... It was hard to tell. Words jumbled in his brain. Memories blurred. There was only one thought that made sense anymore. Food. Hunger. He was hungry. And those kids were taunting him. Not only could he hear them, he could smell them too. They smelt good. Like fresh meat. He wanted them. He wanted to sink his teeth into their flesh. He wanted to taste their blood. He was hungry. Oh so very hungry._

_But he couldn't move. There was something in his way. What was it called again? It began with a 'D'... Dorm? Door? Door! That was it. He needed to remember that. Important word. Good word. He smiled. Yellow teeth broke the darkness. He laughed, repeating his newly learnt word over and over again. Door, door, door! Only it didn't sound like door. In fact, it was nothing but a moan. A gurgle. He giggled. Again, it didn't sound like a giggle. It didn't even sound human. But was he even human? Yes, of course. He was... What was his name again? Door? No, that was the thing that blocked his way. So what was his name? Did he even have a name? Yes, of course he did. He had a name and a family. Family. Yes... he had a son. Big boy. Grown-up boy. His son had yellow hair... No, his son was blonde. Blonde. Another good word. So many good words. _

_Where was his son then? He missed his boy. Eccentric boy. Loud boy. Good boy though. Yes, he was a very good boy. He wanted his son. But what was his son's name? Why were names so hard to remember? He growled. Too much noise. Those kids were too noisy. He couldn't think straight. Why couldn't they just shut up? Why couldn't they give him back his son? Did they even take his son in the first place? He was confused. His head hurt. He was hungry. Hungry, hungry, hungry. Food. He needed food. A good meal would make things clearer. He couldn't go and get anything to eat though. The door was blocking his way._

_There was another noise. He closed his eyes. He could hear them. His brethren. Ah, they made such a nice noise. It drowned out the commotion of the kids. It soothed him. They were close. His brothers and sisters were close. Maybe they could help him. Maybe they could free him. Their numbers were growing. If he just called to them. Hungry, hungry, hungry. Food, food, food. Door, door, door. Too many thoughts. Too many words. _

_The sun was setting. The others were coming out of hiding. There was something important about the night though. Something that tickled him. It had something to do with his family. To do with his boy. Something to do with food. Another 'D' word. Why did everything start with 'D'? Dine... To dine... to eat... to eat... dinner. To eat dinner. That was it. Night-time meant dinner time. Dinner time meant food._

_Food, food, food._

_Dinner, dinner, dinner._

_Door, door, door._

_Why wouldn't they let him eat? All he wanted was one of them. Maybe two. He was so hungry. Couldn't they see that they were being cruel? He could hear footsteps from outside the room. And voices. They were talking; their words fast, jumbling in his rotting brain. He groaned and held his head in his hands. Animalistic grunts puffed from his mouth as he stumbled backwards, falling to the floor and crouching over. He rocked. Back, forth. Back, forth. So hungry... He whined and clasped his hands tighter over his ears. The footsteps had stopped – had passed, yet the voices still echoed in his ears. Loud and happy. No, these weren't outside voices; these voices were inside his head._

_They were voices from the past... what was it again? Memories. They were memories. He had memories. Happy memories. Memories of before. Before what? Had something happened? Did it have anything to do with his boy? His blonde boy. His blue eyed baby. _

_Another grunt. Another whine. He was hungry. Food. Food, he wanted food. Warm food. Bloody food. He wanted... he wanted his boy. He wanted to eat his boy. Wait... eat his boy? Was his boy food? No, his boy was his boy. Not food. Not food. Not food. His son. His baby._

_Hungry..._

_So hungry..._

_He sniffed and grunted again, shifting his position, yet still rocking._

_Food, food, food._

_Hungry, hungry, hungry._

_Escape, escape, escape._

_He needed to escape._

* * *

The knife tore into the skin, hacking through the leathery flesh and thick mass of matted hair. Blood pooled around the limp body, soaking into the concrete and turning from an already dark crimson into an even darker mahogany. Kaoru felt nausea rise in his stomach, twisting at his insides, and he had to force himself to look away, eyes squeezed shut. It felt sick – so very, very _wrong_ – to have to resort to this. To have to kill an animal. Dogs were man's best friend, huh? Yeah, well now it seemed that they were mans main food source. And Kaoru hated it, despised it, and yet he knew that despite every moral in his body, he was going to eat this dog. He would die if he didn't.

Two months. It had taken a mere two months for society in Japan to collapse – for the sickness to wipe out every adult, everybody over the ripe young age of eighteen. Well, 'wipe out' wasn't exactly the right phrase. Some of the grown-ups were still around, limping through the streets, gargling out noises. But they could hardly be called human. They were decaying, rotten shells of the people they used to be. They had become the very personification of the disease. They were practically zombies, only they weren't the living dead. They were the dying, but not yet dead. Yeah, that kind of made sense.

Kaoru winced as the sickening sound of squelching insides reached his ears, the dog's guts being removed and stored in an old shopping bag. One of those ones that environmentalists were always moaning about – the ones that wouldn't rot for fifty years or something ridiculous like that. That fact had turned out to be a lifesaver, though. Without those plastic backs, backpacks, suitcases and satchels, moving food from run down shops, medical supplies from hospitals, and various other necessities would've been impossible.

Although nobody but Kyoya knew how to use the medical supplies, and even then the older boys knowledge was limited. So many had died from infected wounds. But in a way, that was the best death. After all, it was either that or you were ripped to shreds by those yellowing teeth of the people you had once referred to as 'Mum', 'Dad', 'Uncle' and 'Auntie', 'Brother' and 'Sister'.

"Pass me the rope." A rough voice commanded and Kaoru briefly flicked his topaz eyes to another member of their little 'establishment', watching as he passed two lengths of rope into blood stained hands. It was a horrible sight to see – like something out of a horror movie, and Kaoru half halfheartedly complimented those make-up artists on their detailed work. Seeing it in real life showed you how skilled the people on movie sets really were – the fact that the blood was lighter of the skin, sort of watery, and then a deep crimson as it seeped into the cracks of the flesh. It was grotesquely beautiful.

The dog had been completely gutted now – small and large intestine crammed into a bag along with the creatures once beating heart, his lungs and various other organs. Now all that Kyoya was doing – the only one with skilled enough hands to know how to gut an animal – was binding the beast's legs to make it easier to carry. The dog's fur was pulled completely away in places, and the white patches of his fur were now a sickening red. He must've been such a remarkable looking Border collie in his prime.

The auburn haired boys heart gave a painful lurch, and again he wondered why the hell he was even out here, 'watching' this defiling of a living creature. He could easily be indoors. He would much rather be indoors. Like the coward he was. Staying behind the 'safety' of those thick wooden doors that barred Ouran High from the rest of the world.

But no – he was out here, the strong metallic stench of blood clinging to the hairs of his nostrils like the smell of smoke clung to, well, smokers.

Tired eyes flickered up to meet Kaoru's topaz orbs, light reflecting off of the scratched lenses of his glasses. He registered the pale complexion of his 'friend' and sighed, tightening the ropes around the dogs back ankles one last time before nodding to the other boy helping him. Said boy quickly slid a broken beam of wood through the gap of the beast's front legs, pushing it all the way through and out the gap between its back legs before using the cracking wood to heave the dog up and begin moving him away. Kyoya then stood up himself, groaning as his knees clicked. After all, pulling out the insides of an animal was no quick task. And now he was covered in blood. Brilliant.

"If you don't like it, why did you watch?"

His voice was cool, hiding the overwhelming tiredness that flooded his body. Kaoru, whose gaze had trailed away, following the dead dogs departure, jumped slightly and looked back to Kyoya, a sheepish smile on his face. Nothing like his old cheeky grin. More like an echo, a mimic of the once cheerful expression. Broken.

"Am I really that easy to read, Kyoya?"

No 'senpai'. Formalities were long gone now.

"You've always been easy to read, Kaoru. Much easier than your brother." Kyoya replied, voice clipped. He bent down and picked up a towel, wiping as much of the blood from his hands as he could, and turning the grimy grey into a crimson stained grimy grey. "So, why are you out here anyway?"

Kaoru's small smile immediately dropped and he swallowed, a thick lump suddenly forming in his throat.

"You already know that, too, Kyoya..." He mumbled, his hands furling into tight fists. "It's about _'him'_."

Kyoya blew out a puff of air, sending some stray onyx bangs fluttering. He didn't look at Kaoru when he spoke – instead he went about his business, slinging the towel over his shoulder and tying up the ends of the plastic shopping bags. The likes of which already had flies buzzing around them.

"What about '_him_'?" The black haired teen snapped, voice sounding harsher than he meant it to be. "Is he bothering you? Making too much noise, maybe? Or is he trying to escape again? If so, I wouldn't worry too much, he's too stupid to be able to figure out the lock."

Kaoru's gaze followed Kyoya's movements as the older boy spoke, topaz eyes narrowing and fists clenching harder with each word the upper-class man spewed. He hated when Kyoya done this – started spouting random questions without stopping, trying to prevent the other person from speaking. To prevent them from saying what they wanted to say, because he knew he didn't want to hear it.

"It's none of those things, and you know it, Kyoya." Kaoru growled, jogging to catch up with his ex-club co-member, who had started to walk briskly away during his earlier babble of questions. "I've already told you that it's not what he's _doing_ exactly, but what he's _attracting_."

"Which is nothing."

Kaoru let out a frustrated whine, struggling to match the speed at which the other was walking, his body lagging slightly behind the taller male.

"I've seen them Kyoya – every night." Kaoru pressed, ignoring the angry look on Kyoya's face. "At least five at a time, sometimes less, sometimes more. They take refuge in the gym, over the other side of the school. And all of them look at '_his_' window as they pass. As if he's, I don't know, calling them or something."

"You honestly have no idea how stupid you sound right now, do you?" Kyoya countered, cold tone bent to try and sound joking. It didn't work. "I mean, Kaoru, '_calling them_'? Do you understand how impossible that is? You're tired – we're all tired, I get it. But Kaoru, you have got to stop with this. Two weeks is long enough, and I'm exhausted of listening to your delusions."

Kyoya's voice rose higher and higher, until he was practically shouting, a rough texture seeping into his words. His eyes were practically blazing by the time he was finished speaking, and his chest heaving. Then, he gripped the bags tighter and stormed off, leaving a slightly dazed Kaoru in his wake.

The younger twin blinked, shocked by the outburst, before he shook his head, anger seeping into his eyes, lighting them up like an inferno. His already tightly clenched fists grew even tighter, bitten down nails digging in his flesh and knuckles burning an intense white.

"Why won't you just listen to me?!" He roared suddenly, eyes fixed on Kyoya's back. Said boy halted in his steps and his shoulders stiffened.

"I'll listen to you when you start speaking sense."

"I can prove it though! Just let me out on the streets and I can show you that I'm not crazy, Kyoya!"

"No."

Kaoru bristled.

"Why the hell not?!"

Kyoya's posture sagged, arms becoming slightly limper and his head lowering slightly, so that, if Kaoru had been round his front, his eyes would be completely shadowed from sight.

"Because I promised your brother that I would keep you safe, and I don't think that letting you out onto the streets, especially when you can't even fight, would be classed under his definition of 'keep safe'"

Kaoru folded his arms over his chest and scoffed, eyes looking everywhere but Kyoya's back, a small knot of guilt pulling tighter in his stomach.

"He wasn't being serious when he said that, you know." He murmured, thinking back to the day that his older twin left, a wide grin stretched across his features. It felt like a million years ago that that happened – light years away. A different dimension.

"I know." Kyoya replied, before looking over his shoulder just as Kaoru looked back to his ex-school mate. Their eyes locked, topaz clashing with black. "But I think if he saw the situation we were faced with now, I'm one hundred percent certain he would want me to protect you as much as I can. And 'as much as I can' is keeping you behind the school walls where it's secure."

"And what makes you think I need to be protected?"

Kyoya looked away from Kaoru again, re-establishing his firm hold of the bags.

"Your vivid imagination."

And with that the older teen faded round the corner, going to dump the bags of guts somewhere for the festering maggots to claim as their own. Kaoru's shoulders sagged as soon as Kyoya was out of sight and his arms slackened, fists falling. His gaze wandered up towards the small office window on the second floor of the school – the only one where the curtains were drawn closed, keeping out the bright sunlight.

"Vivid imagination?" The auburn haired teen whispered to himself, before his eyes narrowed at the window, the orbs becoming mere slits on his face."Bastard."

* * *

Night fell slowly during summer, and the streets outside the school grew eerily dark, electricity having failed long ago, although they never grew pitch black unlike the nights of winter. Kaoru sat, perched on the window sill, his own little space that he occupied most nights. It was one of the biggest windows in the school, and gave a wide view of the front gate and the streets beyond, also giving him a decent look at the courtyard and the gym buildings off to the side.

He told himself, and others that asked what the hell he done there most evenings, that he was on 'night-watch', or something along those lines. A bodyguard that will wake everyone up if there was ever threat of attack. Well, it wasn't a complete lie. He _was_ watching those sicko's, but only as a sort of twisted fetish of his. Next door he could hear him – that creature that used to be oh-so human. Oh so smart. He was moving, grunting, groaning. Longing. He wanted food. Kaoru knew that, Kyoya knew that – everyone knew. Yet no-one fed him. No-one was brave enough.

A muffled crash from outside drew the auburn haired teens attention over to the gates. He watched as a fallen mother picked herself up, one arm limp. She had knocked over a bin. Maggots spilled to the floor. Some had gotten onto her flesh and Kaoru could imagine that they were already filling themselves on the rotting mass. He grimaced before shaking his head and focusing on the woman – or what was left of the woman – once more, eyes pinned to her every move. She shuffled slowly across the ground, leaving a trail of blood and puss in her wake. Her destination seemed set – like a TomTom, programmed to take you a certain place. Kaoru smirked to himself, imagining that robotic voice in his head saying 'take the next right to reach your rotting brethren'. Her movements were sloppy, hair hanging limp over her face – grease and dirt congealing in the strands along with clumps of thick crimson goo. Blood.

Her feet seemed to carry her towards the other side of the school, were the gym lay old and abandoned. No, not abandoned. Kaoru had seen it, and no matter what the others told him, he knew. He knew that there had to be, what, one hundred adults taking refuge in that area? Two hundred? However many it was, it was a lot. And they were being drawn there.

There were more grunts and groans from the adjacent room and the woman outsides head tilted upwards, as if in recognition. Then she was moving again, her pace quickening from a slow shuffle to a fast waddle. Kaoru frowned, hands tightening into fists. If he could only show them – if he could only prove his theory, then they could put a stop to it. Maybe move to somewhere else.

It was in that split second that he got an idea. A stupid, insane idea. But he didn't care anymore – he was too hung up on proving himself to think about the risks. No, wait, he had thought about the risks, he just didn't give a shit anymore. If he went through with this spur of the moment idea, then there was a chance he was going to die. If he didn't go through with it, he was almost _positive_ he was going to die. So what did he really have to lose?

His brother? Hikaru weren't there. Hell, he would probably never see his twin ever again anyway! His parents? Dead. He knew. He had killed his mum with his own two hands. Kyoya? Kaoru scoffed at that. Yeah right. So what if they had gotten slightly closer in the first few weeks of this fiasco, the black haired teen was treating him like someone from an asylum these days.

Flicking his eyes around the darkness outside once more, Kaoru took a deep breath before slipping off of his perch, grabbing the stocked up backpack he also kept nestle by the window and creeping out of the door and down the corridor, slowly descending down the stairs. He was silent – sneaky. He didn't want to wake anyone. Especially not Kyoya.

Checking over his shoulder one last time and feeling fear begin to settle in, Kaoru bit his lip and undone the latch on the door, wincing as it creaked open, the noise sounding so loud in the dead of the night. And then he was gone, locking the door carefully behind him and slipping into the shadows of the night.

The shadows of the outside world.

He hissed as the cold hit his bare arms before shifting his bag further up his shoulder and following the trail of blood left by the woman. He was going to solve this thing tonight. He was going to confirm his suspicions tonight.

He was going to change his life, and the lives of everyone holed up in Ouran, tonight.

_Forever._

* * *

**I decided to upload this two days early! Yay for me being early for something! (A VERY RARE OCCURANCE, BE WARNED!)**

**So, after a LOT of delays, and shifts of the dates, loss of planning and a whole bunch of other problems, the first chapter of my new fic is FINISHED! Now, this is the first time I'm writing a story with chapters over 1,000 words, so it takes a me a little longer to type it and write it and stuff, which is why this story will be updated one a month. The end of each month, probably, considering I've started it at the end of Jan. Sorry about that, but it's the only thing I can do to ensure I write the best chapters for you guys! Also, as you may have seen, I haven't finished my Fairy Tail fic yet because I've had a serious case of writers block for it, so I'll have to write chapters for that along with this – but those chapters are short and shouldn't mess with my time-scheme for this fic!**

**Thank you so, so much to everyone who's sent in an OC, and they will ALL be used, as I've mentioned before. I am not, however, accepting ANY MORE Oc's from this point out, so please don't leave one in the review section, or the review section of my Oc's entry form, because I'll feel bad about not using it and feel pressured by my conscious into using it even though I've already got more than enough – maybe even too many. **

**Any who, I really hope you guys liked this first chapter, and I hope you review (although I'm not going to force you, or threaten you to XD), and I guess I'll see you all soon! Bye guys! **

**(Imaginary prize for anyone who can guess who the zombie at the beginning is, although I think I made it fairly obvious :P)**


	2. Blue Lips

_They started off beneath the knowledge tree  
And they chopped it down to make a picket fence  
And marching along the railroad tracks  
They smiled real wide for the camera lenses  
As they made it past the enemy lines  
Just to become enslaved in the assembly lines_

_Blue lips, blue veins_  
_Blue, the color of our planet_  
_From far, far away_  
_Blue lips, blue veins_  
_Blue, the color of our planet_  
_From far, far away_

– _Blue Lips, Regina Skeptor_

* * *

Glass crunched under his boots and he edged his way round the building, back pressed firmly against the cold, hard wall. His breathing was deep, but soft, as he tried to mark his presence from the creatures that he knew were lurking deep in the gym. He was positive now – even more sure than he had been before – as he neared his destination, the thick smell of rotting carcasses flooding his nose. Kaoru grimaced at the stench – something akin to a mixture of gone off milk and dog-shit. Lovely. He ran his fingers across the rough texture of the brick wall, a film of cold sweat clinging to his skin. He wasn't a fighter – far from it. He was an observer. In fact, since having arriving at Ouran, back when the 'zombie' population was low, Kaoru hadn't really left the grounds. Most of that was due to Kyoya, though, but a good percentage was because of something else. Fear.

He didn't want to kill, and he didn't want to be killed. When first showing up outside the Ouran gates he had been shaking like a leaf, splattered in blood and gripping his phone like a lifeline. He had tried calling his brother. Once. Twice. Thrice. Only to get through to voicemail all three times. He was shaken – broken – his eyes wide and panicked, and when Kyoya had ran out of the school building and gripped the terrified teen by the shoulders, demanding what had happened, whether he was alright, Kaoru just replied in a flat monotone with three simple words.

"_I killed her."_ He had then started crying, falling against Kyoya's chest and sobbing his heart out, gripping onto the other boy's shirt as he repeated those three words over and over. A mantra. _"I killed her. I killed her. I killed her...!"_

"_Who did you kill?"_ Kyoya had whispered, voice tight, as if he wasn't used to comforting people. Which he wasn't. He was the Shadow King, he didn't usually have to deal with sobbing teenage boy's. Kaoru went rigid at that point, a tense silence settling over the two before finally the auburn haired teen spoke again, tone clipped.

"_My mother."_

Kaoru shivered at the memory, as well as the frigid night's air, and furrowed his eyebrows, trying to focus on the task at hand. That was the past, right at that moment he was outside, about to come face to face with a horde of sicko's. And nobody knew he was gone. Taking another deep breath, the teen crept round the side of the building, feet shifting to make his movements as quiet as possible. The stench that caked the air grew even viler, stronger, as Kaoru drew nearer to the nest – so strong that he gagged, feeling bile rise in his throat. It was revolting, worse than anything he had ever smelt before. But he persevered – lifted the neck of his shirt to cover his nose and hopefully filter the air somewhat. The thick cloth now covering his nose and mouth made breathing more difficult, but at least it relieved him of the sickening smell a little bit.

He was close now. So close he could feel the warmth radiating off the mass of fleshy beings – thick, clogging heat. He could hear their moans too – those deep throaty noises were so far away from being human one would think that a pack of dying dogs was nestled around the corner. Taking another breath, sucking air through the material of his t-shirt and tasting the tang of the tainted oxygen, Kaoru edged a bit closer once more, craning his neck round the corner to peer in through the ajar double doors. Rotting Flesh. Tangled limbs. Yellowed, broken teeth. That was the sight that greeted him. The adults were huddled together in the hall, all of them barely fitting in the dark, enclosed space. There were so many. So many more than Kaoru had originally anticipated. Over a hundred. Over two hundred! God, he couldn't count them!

Kaoru stumbled backwards, tripping over a pebble and falling to the ground with a shrill yelp, smashing his head against the wall just a few feet away from the gym doors. He groaned. Eyes narrowing in his pain as his vision double, blurring the double doors of the gym. The moans from within ceased, their latent whines still echoing in Kaoru frazzled mind, and everything slipped into tight silence. Then there was a shuffling sound. Kaoru's heart beat fast in his chest as he stared at the doors, trying to decipher which set was the real thing and which was the double that his whacked out brain has created. He almost expected one of the adults to creep out, followed by another and another and oh god. His breathing was fast and ragged and he scrambled to his feet, only to wobble and stagger backwards yet again, hand raising itself to rest on the back of his skull. He felt something warm, and wet. Oh brilliant.

Groaning again, the boy slumped forwards, a spider web of black spinning itself across his vision. Something warm latched underneath his arms, preventing his from falling to the ground. Kaoru barely managed to tilt his head backwards to see what had grabbed hold of him, a distinct ringing buzzing in his ears. He caught sight of a blurred shadow, glasses glinting in the moonlight, and he heard the muffled words that slipped from the others lips.

"_What the fuck do you think you're doing?_"

And then everything went black.

* * *

"What the hell is she doing? She's been out there for thirty minutes already..." Hiromi muttered, watching from the window as Kai's hair blew in the gentile midnight breeze. Her pale, almost white, eyebrows scrunching above her eyes as she stared town at her comrade. Next to her, Lisa hummed a bit, her own gaze also trained on the girl outside.

"I don't know – I've given up trying to figure that girl out..." The red head muttered, a slight English accent tinting her voice. Hiromi's red eyes just narrowed pointedly before she sighed and leant back against the wall, white-blonde locks slipping off her shoulders to hang limply down her back, the curls that usually made up the bottoms almost completely flat by now, and grime staining the once clean strands.

"Well she better come in soon before she gets picked off by a Parent – if there are even any left anymore." Hiromi scoffed, eyes slipping shut as tiredness washed over her. "They've been acting weird lately... not even tried to make a snack out of us. It's strange..."

"I'm sure everything's fine. You're just being paranoid." Lisa cut, narrowing her eyes as she tried to read her book, the pages having yellowed a wee bit after being buried under something decomposing that the red head hadn't even tried to name. "Maybe you're not cut out to still be alive."

"Oh shut it, Shrimp." Hiromi bit back, opening her eyes again to send a red glare in the other girls direction. She then let her gaze drop back to the black haired teen outside. "But seriously... what is she up to?"

* * *

Kai sniffed the air, purple eyes flitting round the empty streets. It was quiet. Too quiet. And it had been that way for a few days now. Occasionally a stray Parent would shuffle down the road, but they would hardly ever veer off in the kids' direction, even if they were just out in plain view. It was weird, and out of character for the creatures Kai had come to know quite well over the last two months.

They were bloodthirsty, and would attack anything with a pulse, is what she had seen first and foremost. Secondly, they never seemed to have a destination in mind, unless they got a whiff of something tasty. Third, they preferred the cover of darkness. They would hardly every breach out into sunlight. It seemed to... hurt them, in a way. Like a vampire. But not the Twilight Vampires. No, these Parents didn't sparkle, no matter how cool and morbidly fascinating that would be.

But lately... Their behavioural patterns had been off. For one, they hadn't attacked any of her group. Even when Hiromi had basically stood in front of it one of them for ten minutes it hadn't tried anything. Just tried to push past her. No bites. No attacks. Nada.

Weird point number two: They seemed to have a destination. Which was completely ridiculous and the black haired girl was most likely seeing things. Maybe she shouldn't keep her fringe in front of her left eye anymore – might be putting too much strain on the right and causing her vision to twist. If that was even possible. But no, it really did look like they were heading somewhere.

They would stick to the middle of the road and just shuffle forwards, their eyes even more vacant and glassy than normal. Which was saying something, because they were practically the walking dead. No pun or show reference intended.

And the third point.

They would travel to their 'destination' even in the daytime. And Kai could tell it hurt them. Burned them, or whatever it done to their already rotting flesh. She would see them shuffling down the roads while she was on a hunt in the middle of the day, when the sun was at its highest and the heat was roasting the dead things littering the streets.

And it bothered Kai.

It bothered her a lot.

She thought she had them down – she thought pinning people and things was her specialty. But apparently it wasn't. Either that or something was going to on. Something worse than what had already happened. And what had already happened was a plane wreck that had caused a train wreck that had plunged into the middle of the Atlantic and caused a boat wreck and then subsequently killed a bunch of marine life and also caused an oil spill that had flooded shores and destroyed a major food source.

Basically what had already happened had been a gigantic pile of shit, so how it could get worse Kai had no fucking clue.

But that feeling wouldn't go away.

She tilted her head to the sky and stared at the moon, the clouds having disappeared on this clear winters night. She crinkled her nose, eyebrows furrowing.

A storm was coming.

And she didn't know how, but she had a feeling that it was going to affect everyone left in Japan.

Perfect.

* * *

The first thing Kaoru noticed upon waking up was that it was warm. Not cold, like outside. No, warm. The second thing he noticed that his head hurt like a bitch. He winced, letting his eyes flutter open and adjust to the small amount of light coming from the candle in the corner. It wasn't much, but when you're used to not having any light at all during the dark period of the night, even the smallest drop can make you recoil.

The auburn haired teen groaned as he maneuvered his body into a sitting position, reaching up to his head only to find a bandage wrapped tight around his skull. He blinked.

"So you're up." A cool voice spoke, drawing Kaoru's attention to the doorway. Kyoya stood, body leaning against the door-frame, his face tight and eyes hard behind scratched lenses. Koaru blinked again.

"Kyoya." He said, voice slightly raspy. He grinned weakly. "I take it you were my knight in shining armour? How romantic – I'm flattered, truly." Kyoya's nose wrinkled.

"What were you doing out there?" The Shadow King snapped, voice clipped.

Kaoru tilted his head from side to side before wincing and decided that that was not a smart idea. In fact, maybe he shouldn't move it at all. Yep.

"Oh, you know – fancied a stroll."

Kyoya's eyes narrowed.

"Did you not hear me earlier today when I quite clearly told you to _drop your stupid ideas_?" The black haired teen hissed, and Kaoru frowned.

"Of course I did – I'm not death. But really Kyoya, you should know that I'm a Hitachiin – the word 'obey' isn't in my dictionary." Kaoru quipped. "I may be the nicer twin, but I still don't like being told what to do. And anyway, my ideas are no longer 'stupid'. I found proof of that. But you probably didn't even bother to check inside the gym, did you?" Kaoru scoffed. "You probably just came to drag me home, still thinking that I'm being delirious."

"Well I'm not being delirious, Mr. I-Know-It-All, because there are over one hundred adults in that gym. I saw them, this time."

"I know there are."

"And if you try to tell me they're not there I will drag you down there and show you myself. Maybe even lock you in there... Wait." Kaoru furrowed his eyebrows. "Did you just say that you know they were there?"

"Yes – I know they are there. I've known for quite some time. So has Neru."

Kaoru felt himself bristle.

"Then why the _hell_ didn't you tell me?!" The teen yelled, throat still raspy. "You've been calling me crazy, and delirious when this whole time you _knew I was right_?! What the hell is going on that brain of yours?!"

Kyoya pushed his glasses up his nose.

"You were making too big of a deal out of it. Everyone had heard your yells and rambling speeches, and knew that you wouldn't ever shut up about your 'theory'. So if you just suddenly stopped speaking about it, it would make everyone suspicious. Neru and I wanted to avoid that. We wanted to avoid people panicking. Especially the younger ones. So we decided to deny everything you said. Which in retrospect, wasn't the best decision because you then decided to take matters into your own hands like to stupid little boy you are. You may be the nicer twin, but, dare I say, perhaps Hikaru has more common sense that you, Kaoru."

"Was you ever planning on telling me about this? Or were you just going to let me rot in my own mind?" Kaoru growled out, hands clenching into fists.

"We were going to tell you eventually, once we had everything sorted and our plan could be put into action."

"Plan?"

"Yes – plan."

Kaoru's nails dug into his palm.

"What plan?"

There was a moment of silence, before Kyoya looked Kaoru directly in the eyes, their gazes even.

"Evacuation."

* * *

The door slammed behind her as she entered, a swift clicking sound following as she bolted the heavy hunk of wood using the locks and chains they had stolen from a rundown DIY shop when they had first found this place. She then hopped up the stairs, taking them two at a time, before opening the second door, the one leading to the second landing. She bolted that one behind her too. Double security – can never be too careful these days.

"Have fun?" Hiromi asked upon Kai's entry, and the black haired girl just scoffed, shrugging off the bulletproof vest that she had stolen for a local police station.

"Yeah, I had a brilliant time. You know, those Parents are really just misunderstood babies, if you talk to them, you can see that. We've even arranged a Peace Conference to sort this whole mess out."

Hiromi rolled her eyes.

"Alright, alright – no need to get sarcastic. A simple 'What do _you_ think?' would've been sufficient enough."

Kai sighed and ran a hand through her hair, plopping down onto one of the sofa's in the small above-shop apartment.

"Sorry, sorry..." She muttered. "It's just... these stupid Parents and their sudden change in behaviour is bothering me."

"Like I told Hiromi earlier, you're just being paranoid." Lisa piped up from her perch on the windowsill.

"No, it's something more than that... there's something going on."

Hiromi sighed and plopped down into an armchair, sending a glare to Lisa.

"Be a bit sensitive, Shrimp," She snapped. "It's worse for Kai because of the direction they're going in."

"The direction?" Lisa asked, her interest slightly piqued. She looked up from her book.

"Yeah, the direction – they're heading towards her old town, where she lived before everything kicked off. She's worried for the survivors left there, because chances are she went to school with them."

"Well sorry," Lisa mumbled, "You forget that I only joined your little romance in the last few weeks – I haven't had the pleasure of sitting round the fire sobbing into your shoulders and whining about everything that happened after all this shit hit."

"Oi!" Kai suddenly snapped, her cool facade slipping in her tiredness. "Enough, come on..."

There was a moment of silence before Lisa coughed, her face buried in her book as she tried not to show her interest in the topic.

"So, um, where did you used to live...?"

Kai sighed and let her purple gaze train itself on the inky black sky outside, the view smudged with fingerprints from the glass.

"Ouran."

* * *

**Can I just start off by saying how sorry I am? I know I've kept you all waiting so bloody long, and I feel so bad but hopefully I'll be back on track now! I've taken my options, finished my Year Nine mocks, things at home are finally getting better and the school year is coming to a close, so to say I'm feeling more refreshed is an understatement XD**

**This year has been tricky because my dad was diagnosed with cancer last May, and so he's had to go through a lot of treatment, and things have just been falling apart. But he had an operation in the Easter Holidays they managed to remove the tumor, which is the biggest relief there is and we're all so happy and things are getting so much better and easier.**

**So I'm sorry this took so long, but I hope you can understand how hard it's been for me, and hopefully I'll be more active as of now! I'll definitely try to keep my once and month routing from now on :)**

**Oh, and in this chapter we see the first Oc's appear, who are Kai Hoshina (Deathfairy78), Lisa Conquest (MiniFlame) and Hiromi Tsubaki (girlygurl720)! There are so many more to come, too, but their appearances will be staggered to give me a chance to develop characters as I go along. And to see Tamaki, Hikaru, Haruhi, Mori and Honey/Hunny's entrances, you'll have to be a bit patient, because I want to set the scene in Japan first before moving onto our other Hosts~ **

**Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Leave a review if you want~**


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